Rosa DeLauro supports Reach Out and Read program by reading to Middletown children

Published 3:03 pm, Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Photo: Kaitlyn Schroyer — The Middletown Press

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro reads to a group of children from the Town and Country Early Learning Center in support of Reach Out and Read in Middletown on Tuesday.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro reads to a group of children from the Town and Country Early Learning Center in support of Reach Out and Read in Middletown on Tuesday.

Photo: Kaitlyn Schroyer — The Middletown Press

Rosa DeLauro supports Reach Out and Read program by reading to Middletown children

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

MIDDLETOWN >> Tuesday morning, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro read to children at Middlesex Hospital in support of the nonprofit program Reach Out and Read.

For some children, the only books they may receive early in their lives are from the program, DeLauro said.

Based in medical centers, Reach Out and Read gives books to children ages 6 months to 5 years at their checkups.

“It’s so critical and important,” DeLauro said about reading at a young age. “Literacy is a mark of a civilized society. Who are we if not an educated society?”

Dr. Cliff O’Callahan, one of the doctors at the Middlesex Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program, said that reading is “brain feeding.”

“When residents see children, they use the books to access development and also determine comfort level with books,” O’Callahan said.

“It encourages parents in reading [to their children],” DeLauro said.

In Connecticut alone, there are currently 69 locations offering Reach Out and Read. The program sees around 40,000 children a year and gives out around 65,000 books a year.

Reach Out and Read has been in Middletown since 2006 and is privately funded.

A few years ago, funding was consolidated and cut from the program. Now, Reach Out and Read is trying to gain back some state and federal funding, officials said.

“Residents take the knowledge to their practices and spread it,” O’Callahan explained.

After a resident’s time at a clinic, they move on to their own practices.

“Not only do the children and families in our region benefit from the program, but the residents benefit as well,” O’Callahan added. “They become highly skilled during their four year training at promoting family reading and assessing the child’s development.”

“It’s a segue into learning,” O’Callahan said. “We want televisions out of the bedroom. We transition families to sleep with a book.”

With the program, kids start kindergarten with at least 10 new, carefully chosen books. Their parent becomes knowledgable about the importance of books and reading, officials said. Reach Out and Read even offers bilingual books in 12 languages.

Reach Out and Read is also at the Community Health Center in Middletown.